INTERVIEW: We’ll floor Saraki in 2015 – Iyiola Akogun The Chairman, Kwara State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, Mr. Iyiola Oyedepo, in this interview with SUCCESS NWOGU, speaks on the current security situation in some parts of the country among other political issues in Kwara State What do you think about the involvement of some world powers in the search for the Chibok schoolgirls abducted since April 14 by the Boko Haram sect? The involvement of foreign powers is a welcome development, which I hope will enable them and Nigeria’s security agencies to safely rescue the abducted girls. Nigerians should be more patient with the government. We have never experienced this type of insecurity in the country. If anybody is blaming President Goodluck Jonathan for the security lapses, such a person is not sincere. In the past, there were Ife-Modakeke crisis, Egbesu Boys crises, Niger Delta crisis, OPC and even MASOBB crises. The hoodlums could easily be identified. But the Boko Haram crisis is a bad phenomenon that has developed and you hardly can understand it. It is a situation where someone who is discussing with you may be ready to kill you and kill himself in the next minute. We need to give the government time to train security operatives on anti-terrorism. In as much as the government is trying its best to address insurgency, the citizens should be more security conscious and more patriotic. People should volunteer useful information to security operatives. The abduction of the girls is very agonising and sad. We need to pray to God for intervention. Do you have confidence in the Independent National Electoral Commission to conduct credible elections in 2015? It is difficult to say we do not have confidence in the umpire when you are a participant in that process. The elections of 2011 in my opinion were better than that of 2007. I also consequently believe that 2015 elections will be better than 2011. For us to have credible elections, political parties also have some roles to play. We must be vigilant. Every electoral process and procedure can be open to manipulations. It is the people that will not allow it. In Kwara, we want to create conscious electorate that will monitor and protect our votes. INEC should be more empowered and adequately funded so that it can conduct credible elections. If the party can help in funding INEC properly, I welcome that. It is said that a certain individual contributed immensely to the emergence of the current Kwara State PDP executive and is substantially in control of the executive members. Is this true? It is not true. The truth is that my leadership of the party is brought about by Almighty God. In fact, the way it developed was not my making. God has sent me here on an assignment and that is precisely what I will do. In the process of my emergence as the chairman, some groups and individuals may have made some contributions, but there is no single individual that can claim to have financed my ambition and that of other executive members. There were two factions in the party during the election of the state executive members: The Freedom and Unity groups. They were made up of many leaders in the state. Those leaders came together one way or the other to sponsor some candidates. I am a beneficiary of the Unity group, but there is nobody in the Unity group that can say that I am his sole candidate and I am in his pocket. I have no special allegiance to anybody or the entire executive. I am totally committed to the growth of PDP. There is nobody that has the majority of his or her candidates in the executive of the party. Do you think the PDP has what it takes to unseat the APC administration in 2015? Yes. I really do not see the APC, strictly speaking, being on ground again in Kwara State. Senator Bukola Saraki, who is the leader of the party, can be described as a person who entered into political arena from the roof of the house and he does not have political influence and followership anymore that can make him to retain power in the state. He has always been relying on federal might. How exactly do you hope to wrestle power from APC? We have a five-cardinal programme in agriculture, education, health, infrastructure and rural development, and people’s empowerment. We want to market this agenda to the people of Kwara State. This is what has always been lacking in the politics of the state; politicians have not always been engaging the people in productive discussions. In the present era, we want to do that seriously. We have a programme on sensitisation, mobilisation and organisation which we code-named ‘SMO.’ That is what we want to use to mobilise residents of the state. Saraki has a burden to explain his eight-year tenure and it is to our own advantage. We can always point to the people what he has not been able to achieve during his administration despite the abundant opportunities he had. Our selling point is our ability to convince the people that they are following a wrong person. Do not forget that the camp is weak now. His father, Dr. Olusola Saraki, is not around anymore. With what we have and the information at our disposal concerning Saraki’s administration, we do not believe that APC has a chance in the state. What will the party do to the growing threat from Saraki, who appears to have an overwhelming political clout and influence in the state? We believe that he will continue to say that he is the most relevant person in Kwara politics until he is beaten. If by next year, he is beaten, everybody in this country will know that his touted political clout is no more relevant in Kwara State. The people of Nigeria should wait for the greatest news that will come from Kwara State in 2015 election. We know very well that Bukola will be completely defeated. But a former Acting National Chairman of PDP, who has defected to the All Progressives Congress, Alhaji Kawu Baraje, the Kwara State Governor, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed, Saraki and many others have said that PDP’s drive to recapture power from APC in the state is a mirage. What is your take on that? I expect the APC and its leadership to still be thinking and persuading people that they are in charge of Kwara State. But categorically, the people know that they have lost the grip of Kwara politics. Some people have the misconception that the political power and sagacity of the late ‘Strongman’ of Kwara Politics fondly called Oloye, late Dr. Olusola Saraki, is still available for his son, Bukola. The truth is that it is no longer available for him. In any case, Bukola helped to destroy that dynasty by fighting his own father until the man died. He is still fighting his sister, Senator Gbemi Saraki, up till today. Also the people of Kwara desire a change and they are Bukola-fatigued. Bukola has divided the Saraki dynasty. Part of the dynasty is still with us. The one with us, Gbemi can be categorised as the progressive side of the dynasty. That is the one that wants to maintain the dynasty by changing a lot of things to fit into the current situation and help the masses. Bukola rode a vehicle of PDP to power and now decided to abandon it. Bukola and his loyalists may have money and may be, for now, control the state and 16 local governments, but they no longer have the full grip of the people of Kwara State. What are you doing to attract PDP defectors back to the party? Attracting the defectors back is not very difficult. When they see that the boat carrying them is sinking, they will look for an alternative way to escape. Right now, many of our programmes that we will marshal out in coming weeks will lead to many defections from APC to PDP. Now that the PDP has fallen out with Saraki, is it the man that you have a problem with or the APC he defected to? We have a problem with the man. You will discover that when Saraki left PDP, his deputy governor, Elder Joel Ogundeji; a former speaker of the House of Assembly, Tunde Mohammed, Bio Ibrahim and several commissioners in his regime did not go with him. So those people who are with him now are those holding offices. Many leaders in the state did not go with him. That will show you that the man is in trouble. If he has been good, all the personalities mentioned above should have followed him. It shows that he is not on the ground, and that is why they have refused to follow him. Those people with him are those eating from him. His time is up.
Posted on: Sun, 25 May 2014 20:08:34 +0000
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